Chapter Three
A stone-cold pursuit.
Concealing the hip-flask in my hip pocket, I pushed the door adjoining the lobby to the stairwell. A loud thud echoed from somewhere on the floors above. I paused and listened, feeling slightly claustrophobic. No footsteps followed, probably the typical settling of an old structure. Old buildings are like old people, full of history and stories, and they have a habit of falling apart. The apartment block wasn’t ancient, but cheap construction and bad weather had a way of wearing down even the tallest and strongest structures.
I was half way across the sorry excuse for a lobby when the door opened, letting in a frigid blast of wet and cold, making me squint. A thin young man stepped in, hands stuffed into his pockets. Scrawny and pale, he wore an overs
